An update on something Canada can’t sell yet “Taxpayers have spent nearly $15 million over the last eight years maintaining the vacant Kapyong Barracks site while the federal government fights a land claim for the site by Treaty One First Nations. A few years ago, the Department of Defence reported the annual cost to maintain the site, including the 41 buildings, was $1.95 million. A Department of Defence spokeswoman recently told the Free Press that dropped to $1.5 million in 2011 when the six buildings that were still being used were emptied. Since the barracks were abandoned by the Princess Patricia Light Infantry Unit in 2004, taxpayers have spent $14.7 million on the empty barracks, including for utilities, operations and maintenance, property taxes, site security and site management. “Good grief,” said Manitoba NDP MP Pat Martin. “The government’s stubborn intransigence on this file is costing us a fortune.” A 1997 agreement with Treaty One First Nations gave them the right of first refusal when surplus federal land became available. However when Ottawa officially declared the land surplus in 2007, it planned to to sell the site to the Canada Lands Company for $8.6 million. CLC, a Crown corporation that redevelops surplus federal land, planned a mix of homes and businesses on the site. The seven Treaty One First Nations went to court to challenge the decision shortly after ….”